A digital health company that graduated from Rock Health’s healthcare startup accelerator in Boston has raised $1 million in a second and final closing of its Series A round, according to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Digital health startup Podimetrics will use the investment to develop more products to help diabetics, according to an e-mailed statement from the Boston-based business.
One focus of the company has been diabetic foot ulcers, a condition that can drive up hospitalization costs and result in amputations if not caught early enough. An article published in 2006 by American Diabetes Association’s journal Clinical Diabetes noted that more than 80,000 amputations are performed each year on diabetic patients in the United States, at roughly $45,000 per procedure. With an estimated 26 million people in the US with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, it continues to be an escalating issue and with roughly $250 million spent treating patients with the chronic condition each year, it’s definitely an area that could from entrepreneurs developing tools to better manage the disease.
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In an interview with MedCity News last year, Podimetrics co-founder Jeff Engler described the way the bathroom mats work. When the patient steps on the mat, sensors scan his or her feet to collect data about blood flow and send the data to the cloud to be stored and analyzed. The company’s algorithms look at that data in two ways: longitudinally over time and comparatively between the left and right foot to detect patterns that may indicate the presence of a developing ulcer. When the algorithms detect a pre-ulcer, an alert is sent to the patient and his doctor prompting an intervention early on. The device takes about 30 seconds to use each day — comparable to the amount of time a person would spend at the bathroom sink.
Podimetrics, were also part of the Statup Showcase at CONVERGE last year. Since October, the company has raised $2.5 million.
Among some of the other companies addressing the diabetic foot ulcer problem are Orpyx Medical Technologies, a Canadian company developing pressure sensors, wound closure company MxBiodevices, which is developing a scaffold to help diabetics heal faster from these wounds. Companies are also developing diagnostic devices for these wounds such as O’Brien Medical,
